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> Leaving money at a bank exposes you to vastly more systemic risk than just putting bills in a safe or something.

This is very dependent on the country you are in. Some countries have very conservative risk tolerances for their banks which are imposed on them and watched closely.

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Still, there's risk, right? If there were zero risk the bank would be unable to make any loans at all. It would just be like a safe.

Before central banks there were local banks that operated like that, you could pay them to keep your money safe, or you could let them lend it out for a share of the interest, but you also had a share of the loss/risk.

With central banks the risks of loss is low enough that nobody needs the just keep my money safe service anymore - except now they do because rates are so low

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